


Today is Tuesday

by Butterfish



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: AU, Angst, Love, M/M, time travelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2015-08-18
Packaged: 2018-04-15 11:19:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4604760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterfish/pseuds/Butterfish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Today is Tuesday, and Alfred gets a call from the future. It's Arthur - he doesn't want them to meet, and he won't tell why. But he'll ensure nothing goes wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Today is Tuesday

“Hello?”

“Hey, who’s calling?”

“Alfred, is that you?”

“Yes?”

“Oh my god, it worked…”

Alfred stood still and listened to the guy crying.

It was autumn. Pumpkin-spiced lattes, thick scarves, bonfires in the distance, rain on the window, leather boots and fingerless gloves. Alfred was dressed to combat the cold. Every morning, he took the train 40 minutes south to his university town to study, and every evening, he took the train 40 minutes north to his home town to fall asleep. At 5pm, his backpack felt heavy, and the taste of his gum had worn out. He chewed it one last time, spat it out in a bin, and returned to his phone.

“Who’s this?” he asked, and the crying on the other end subsided.

“You’ll never have to know,” the guy spoke. His voice was frail. There was noise in the background - not music, more like an echo. An empty, hollow echo, the kind you get in public restrooms at night when no one else is there.

Alfred frowned and took off his glasses. He rubbed his eyes in the sleeve of his jacket. “Listen, man, I don’t know who you were trying to call-”

“I called you, and I got you. I can’t believe I got through to you.”

“-but I’m not it,” Alfred said.

“But you are, Alfred. Alfred Jones.”

At the mention of his last name, Alfred bit his inner cheek and narrowed his eyes. He put his glasses back on and slowly glanced around the station. Across from him, a couple walked the platform. Neither were on their phone. To his right, a businessman was reading the paper. He licked his fingers, turned the page to the comics, and laughed quietly. “What?”

“Alfred Jones. That’s your name. You’re the one I wanted, and I got you. I can undo all of this. This is perfect.”

“Who are you?”

“Sorry, I’m Arthur. That’s.. that’s all I can say. I’m Arthur.”

“You know my last name, but you won’t say yours?”

“I’m sorry, it’s better this way.”

“Is this a prank call?” Alfred breathed more easy at the thought. He straightened up and smiled, “Gilbert, right? I knew it! You’re such a fucking loser.”

“Gilbert is at Elisabeth’s, and you know it. She wouldn’t let him prank you,” the voice, Arthur, spoke.

Alfred’s hold around the phone tightened. “You know Gilbert?”

“I know all of your friends, Alfred. I used to be one.”

A train rolled up to the platform on the other side. Its engine groaned. For two minutes, it stood still, then, with a roar, it took off again. The couple was gone. Alfred glanced up at the sky and noted the stars had started to come out.

“What are you, some.. crazy ex-friend?”

“No, that’s the point. We’ll never be friends. We’ll never meet.”

“Look, I’m about to hang up-” Alfred threatened, but he was cut short by Arthur’s laugh.

“You never hang up on people. You can’t even hang up on sales calls!”

“That’s not true!”

“Remember when you bought a years worth of dog food? - and you didn’t even have a dog!”

Alfred smiled. “Oh yeah, that was pretty dumb. Wait, how’d you know?”

“I told you,” Arthur said, his voice gentle, “I used to be a friend. I used to be your partner.”

A chill ran down Alfred’s spine. He started sweating. How can you sweat when you’re cold, he wondered. Yet he did - patches were forming under his arms, and he started pacing the platform, unnerved.

“I don’t have a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend,” he added, “I’m not even-”

“Maybe you won’t. I don’t know. Most likely you will. We won’t meet, I won’t get to know.”

“What do you mean, we won’t meet? If you know me so well, we must’ve met!”

“Oh, we have,” Arthur said.

“You’re not making sense.”

“Today is Tuesday the seventeenth of August, 2015. In five minutes, we will meet. I will come on your right. I’m taking the train to the airport. I’m catching a plane home. On the ride, we will talk, we will exchange phone numbers, and I will make you feel things you never thought possible.” Arthur spoke with confidence.

Alfred started pacing the platform with more rapid steps.

“We will chat. On Skype. On Facebook. You’ll upload private Youtube videos, just for me. We will fall in love. We will fall in love deep. And we will never separate. Not in spirit, anyway. It’ll be our downfall.”

“Why?” Alfred asked. His voice came out weak and dry. “What do you mean, downfall?”

“You will die.”

Alfred stopped. The wind picked up, and seconds later another train passed. This one didn’t stop. The wind, dragged alongside the heavy machinery, blew Alfred’s hair around and dragged his scarf off his neck. He didn’t bother picking it up. He stood still as he listened.

Arthur didn’t speak for another minute. Then, his voice returned, soft, “You go to see me. At the airport. You’re excited. I’m finally moving to live with you. You drive there. There’s no car crash. You enter the airport. No one bothers you. You sit in front of the arrival’s screen, watch my plane as it updates. It goes from 5minutes to 2minutes to landed, and then waiting for luggage, and then you get up, because you know any minute, any minute I will arrive, and you cannot wait.” He paused.

“And then?” Alfred asked.

“- it doesn’t matter.” The sound of echo became stronger. It was like the room Arthur was in got bigger, more vast, more empty. Or maybe his voice was just filling with sadness.

“Where are you?” Alfred asked, breathless.

“I’m at the airport. Security is looking for me. My future is set in stone. I’ve lost you. But I don’t want to lose you again, in another world, in another time. I want to set the next circle of events straight. I want to make sure we never meet. I want you to live, happily, and become the man you were destined to be.”

Alfred felt it now - tears. They pushed at the corners of his eyes. His hand holding the mobile was sweaty. He could hardly get a firm grip.

“Oh Alfred,” Arthur whispered, “I love you so, so much.”

“You can’t stop me,” Alfred said, “you can’t stop me from meeting you now.”

“I love you so, so much…”

“You’re coming on my right?” Alfred repeated his earlier words. He turned right and looked, and, as he saw no one, he started running down the platform. “What’s the time, it must’ve been three minutes. Where are you? The train is coming! We must go together.”

“I love you so, so much…”

The train rolled into the platform. The doors opened. They closed. Alfred, desperate, paced back alongside the platform. But he didn’t see anyone.

“Where are you!” he screamed to the phone.

To his right, he saw someone. A guy, blond hair and green eyes, looked out at him. He held a black suitcase in his arms as he battled the crowd of people around him. And in his reflection, as he looked out and caught Alfred’s eyes, Alfred saw an older blond, green-eyed man, holding a mobile as he smiled,

“Goodbye Alfred.”


End file.
